Review Semi final vs Hawthorn - Ugly, Historically Embarrassing and Pathetic

[SugarShane]

So do we finish 5th or 6th?

5th I believe. Ladder position is the tie breaker.

Not that it makes a huge amount of difference. Will be in the top 6 for match ups next year. Get ready for double ups against Geelong, Collingwood and Hawthorn.

 

[n4sir]

Felt like we never really wanted to get our hands on the ball first, lacked finals aggression. We were by far the worst team in this final series. Fremantle, GWS and Lions played much better football, even though they lost.

Nicks defensive gameplan circa 2020-2022 and early 2024. The play your opponent before going for the ball bullshit.

For some unknown reason, Nicks thought this proven failure would work in the finals.

 

[GameofSloanes]

Had we dropped the North game we would have been playing GC tonight at home.

What have you seen that makes you think we would beat them anyway?

 

[Cleric]

And just before that we played both Hawks and Pies and just got over the line in each - which is definitely an improvement on previous years but you could tell that if they were 5% more efficient they would have got us

Signs everywhere. Time to restock and go again. I’m hoping we get significant changes to coaches and players. Fortunately we may now have some attraction to players and coaches at other clubs

We got over the line against Collingwood when they had over 70 forward 50 entries. Some people here were claiming that we can absorb that with our game plan.
Again, if people think we can give away twice as many inside 50s each week and keeping winning in finals, they need to put the bottle down.
There was so many danger signs that were there for blind Freddy to see.

For what its worth, maybe this is the spur the team needs to go to the top next year.
I hope this is burning in their guts for 6 months.
I hope Rankine comes back twice the player with something to prove.
Our younger players will be better with another year into them.

Winning premierships is about culture and experience. We dont have that at the moment. We have to gain that over the next couple of years.

 

[Scorpus]

We would have seen a midfield rotation of Crouch, Laird and Keays in this final if Crouch hadn't have saved Nicks and retired

 

[Bay62]

5th I believe. Ladder position is the tie breaker.

Not that it makes a huge amount of difference. Will be in the top 6 for match ups next year. Get ready for double ups against Geelong, Collingwood and Hawthorn.

Bring it on. To be the best you have to beat the best. Time for us to put up or shut up

 

[GameofSloanes]

Is it good that we didn't get a (relative) gimme finals win vs Freo, GWS or Gold Coast?

Instead came up against rock solid September teams & coaches who eat newb teams & coaches for breakfast in September.

If we'd got a win against a team closer to our level it would have reinforced (to us) that we're on the right path. The glorious win at home vs Fremantle was the real Crows, the insipid finals losses either side to Geel/Haw/Coll weren't us.

Instead it's been laid bare that our style of play, selection and 22 still need major work.

The style of play we have when we're on top vs weak teams might be good enough but nicks is too afraid to use it against good teams, prefers to be super defensive. That style had us finish 15th last year

 

[Greenfinger]

If we miss finals next year he will be gone

No he won’t

 

[DaKids]

You don’t think he handballs to teammates under pressure?

He needs to improve, would be nice to have used pick 4 on someone who actually doesn’t have issues

Harvey Langford was the stand out around that pick and I did write something on here at the time. Draper a bit handpass happy if watching his junior football. The crows do have challenges picking vic kids though and not surprised they went the safe local pick.

 

[Not_The_Messiah]

Positive: if we finish top next year and go out in straight sets again, it would only have been 1 year since that record was broken

 

[Greenfinger]

We played Bulldogs, Hawks, Collingwood and Gold Coast plus a Showdown and yes two games against bottom 2 in theclast 7 games but it was just as hard as most other finals side.

What I want to know is what happened after the Bulldogs/Gold Coast/Showdown games. It all went belly up after those matches.

How long has Dawson been carrying the ankle injury?

 

[PCORF]

MIDFIELD, MIDFIELD, MIDFIELD.

This must be THE priority over summer.

Get ruthless and go and buy one NOW.

But there is also another team in town so it really is a battle.

Players need to get their heads up better.

 

[Bay62]

In his presser after last week Nicks dismissively said he knows what the narrative will be - which is that got smashed in the middle. He preferred to say that we just had to lower our eyes and not bomb it in forward.

Which is fine, but the reason we were bombing it forward is because we were getting SMASHED IN THE MIDDLE so we started to panic and think we had to kick goals quickly to catch up

If we’d had cleaner possession from the middle - or any possession really - we wouldn’t have been under that level of pressure

It’s like when Neil Craig excused our lack of leg speed by saying it was about speed of ball movement, not leg speed

IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A CHOICE BETWEEN THE TWO - you can win it in the middle AND lower your eyes

 

['51 Bewick]

Hi folks, I just came in to say bad luck losing to those mongrels. Adelaide is a club I have always respected, unlike the scumbag Dorks.

 

[George CantStandYa]

Lot of scars I reckon from this, do they have it in them to recover? I wouldn’t count finals next year a lock

 

[1990crow]

MIDFIELD, MIDFIELD, MIDFIELD.

This must be THE priority over summer.

Get ruthless and go and buy one NOW.

Just one?

 

[1990crow]

Lot of scars I reckon from this, do they have it in them to recover? I wouldn’t count finals next year a lock

Only way is to recruit well.

 

[George CantStandYa]

Only way is to recruit well.

And sack Nicks

 

[1990crow]

And sack Nicks

I don't have a lot of faith that will happen. Club is too conservative and isn't ruthless enough.

 

[Scorpus]

Lot of scars I reckon from this, do they have it in them to recover? I wouldn’t count finals next year a lock

Don't rule out a Nicks gameplan over correction.

If he sees the issue that we conceded too high of a score, rather than we couldn't move the ball or score ourselves, you can lock in a bottom 8 finish.

Also we had a dream injury run. Cop an injury or two and we could massively fall away.

That's without factoring in the mental scarring in line with a GF smashing that we know sees teams miss finals then following year

 

[1990crow]

Don't rule out a Nicks gameplan over correction.

If he sees the issue that we conceded too high of a score, rather than we couldn't move the ball or score ourselves, you can lock in a bottom 8 finish

Neil Balme needs actually do what he's been recruited to do.

 

[CrowBloke]

He was absolutely an "experience" selection all year. What good did it do in finals? 250 games of experience all leading to blazing at goal from 70m out to a Darcy Moore with no one else within 30m. Now Edwards will be expected to slot in and perform having zero experience.

I rate your posting and agree with the above.
Nicks paints himself into a corner, by preferring underperforming Seniors over possible AFL-worthy Juniors, which actually restricts his choices when the going gets tough.
When it comes to
"Should we pick Smith or X?" his only selection can be Smith; 250+ games, good bloke/one of the boys, and a known quantity.
BUT

It's playing Douglas and Jacobs in the last round when we knew they were leaving. It's dropping Phil Davis after a rising star nomination. It's playing Andy Otten in the Grand Final because he's a good story.

References to Douglas and Jacobs (2019), Davis (2010, well back in the past!), and Otten 2017 have nothing to do with Nicks (who has serious shortcomings of his own, irrelevant to any of those players) or our last 2 losses.

I can see that you'd be reminded of those mistakes under different Coaches but --- serious question --- aren't our immediate problems different and more urgent?

 

[Southerntakeover]

Lot of scars I reckon from this, do they have it in them to recover? I wouldn’t count finals next year a lock

Once the tone is set for an era, very hard to turn it around.

Literally nothing we can do in the regular season next year can redeem this or help.

 

[GreyCrow]

Nicks had plenty of time to try nrw structures and players in different positions. But he mostly refused. He stuck with the same old plan even against the bottom 4, when he knew we were playing finals. Experiment when you can because we hot found out big time.

What also happens we then have '' ITK '' posters claiming we had the flu or that Dawson had a busted ankle or that this player (Fogarty) was injured but still played

That only happens if the coach doesnt trust his squad or he hasnt tried his squad

 

[Doctor B]

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